Things could be worse… You could be the Houston Astros… Or the Washington Nationals. Like I tweeted out last night, I don’t care if we back in or if we bash down the front door, last night the Nationals lost and despite our listless play of late, the Mets magic number is down to five with ten games left to play.
Last night was a crushing blow for the Nationals when Manny Machado hit a two-run homer off Max Scherzer with two outs in the seventh inning and the Baltimore Orioles rallied to beat then 4-3.
Washington’s frustration was on full display when Nationals closer Jonathan Papelbon twice threw up and in to Machado in the ninth, plunking the Orioles third baseman with his second pitch.
Home plate umpire Mark Ripperger immediately ejected Papelbon, prompting both benches to empty but no fists were thrown.
Like I’ve been saying for months now, the Washington Nationals are done. The Mets might be playing tight, as Terry Collins said on Tuesday, but the Nationals are doing much, much worse.
So despite a disappointing 3-6 homestand for the Mets, who have lost six of their past eight games, the Mets maintain their 6.5 game lead and it’s only a matter of days until they clinch the NL East title.
“It’s always good when that magic number shrinks,” captain David Wright said when told the Nationals lost. “Ultimately we’d like to play better and have that magic number shrink because we’re winning, and not have to have it shrink because they’re losing.” (ESPN New York)
“I think this is our first losing homestand all year. We’ve played well at home. Lately we’ve played really well on the road. So hopefully we continue to be those road warriors.”
As usual, Wright keeps saying the right things and of course he’s right. The Mets have been a juggernaut on the road since the additions of Yoenis Cespedes, Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson, and the promotion of Michael Conforto.
Additionally, we head to Cincinnati with our young guns Steven Matz, Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom ready to go in a four-game series with the Reds.
“It’s a poor homestand, but we’ve got some of those young horses going in Cincinnati,” Wright said. “So, hopefully, we can go win a series and get that much closer.”
Meanwhile, it sounds like the end is near for Nationals manager Matt Williams. During a local radio interview on Wednesday, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo was asked whether Matt Williams will remain the team’s manager next season.
“Well, we’re going to certainly evaluate everything that went right and went wrong this season, after the season… We’re going to let the chips fall where they may.”
Yikes… the former Manager of the Year has been a train wreck this year, guiding the odds-on favorite to win the World Series to a disappointing 78-73 record.
So if you’re mad as hell about the New York Mets these last few days, you can take solace in the fact that things could be much worse than having a 6.5 game lead with 10 left to play.
I say the Mets clinch Sunday at Great American Ball Park.
